DFST 2033: Article Review Form

Name Lauren Schillings

APA Gershoff, E. T. (2002, July). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: A
Works Cited
meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 128 (4), 539-579.
Reference
doi:10.1037//0033-2909.128.4.539

Introduction
Terminology A meta-analytic study combines the results of a wide variety of other studies with similar hypotheses. Corporal
Are all key terms are
identified and
defined?
punishment the use of physical force on a child with the intent of causing pain, but not injury, for correction of

the child's behavior. Physical abuse is physically injuring a child. The parent or caretaker may not have intended

to hurt the child; rather the injury may have resulted from over-discipline or physical punishment. Moral

internalization is taking the values and attitudes of society as one's own so that socially acceptable behavior is

not driven by expectation of outward consequences but by internal factors.

Purpose of the Study

The Study's To find out whether and how corporal punishment affects children.
Purpose

Research How does corporal punishment affect children? How do children behave after experiencing corporal
Questions
and/or punishment? How are they emotionally after after experiencing corporal punishment? Is it an
Hypotheses
effective overall method of punishment? How will corporal punishment effect children when they are

older?
Sampling
Inclusion Criteria Age and gender were reported in most of the studies. Ethnicity and SES were seldom reported.

How many 88 studies were evaluated.

studies were
evaluated?

Results and Discussion

Overall Findings Corporal punishment was found to be related to undesirable behavior consistently in almost all of the studies.
1. All are presented
2. All are accurate
3. All are explained
Children were more likely to have a higher level of aggression and lower levels of moral internalization and

mental health. Also, they are more likely to have delinquent or anti-social behavior. The only result found that

wasn't bad was a higher level of direct compliance. Their behaviors and experiences when measured in

adulthood included aggression, criminal or antisocial behavior, low mental health, and adult abuse of their own

child or spouse.

Contributions This has contributed to my own position on corporal punishment because I was never positive on
1. Information
is complete
2. Information
where I stood. Now, I am against this form of punishment because it could have many detrimental
is accurate
effects on your child.

Limitations Assigning parents to experiments would give weak evidence, so researchers must rely on parent reports of
1. Present
2. Accurate
corporal punishment at home rather than on observations. Also, the meta-analyses doesn't have the ability

to produce needed definitive conclusions.